The Comprehensive United in Stormwind Preview

 

Hot Streak

Preparation for Fire Spells? Doesn’t sound that amazing when you put it like that, but Hot Streak has the potential to enable too many things to list. These types of 0-mana discount cards always end up seeing play because mana cheating is very powerful in Hearthstone. We’re quite certain there are things you can do with Hot Streak that most players have not yet thought about (Grand Finale!). The obvious interaction in this set is Sanctum Chandler, and at least one of these potential combos is likely to put Hot Streak in a constructed deck.

Score: 3

Prestor’s Pyromancer

Talented Arcanist for Fire Spells, but you can store the spell damage for a later turn. This makes Pyromancer a great setup for either Combustion or Fire Sale, allowing you to stabilize in the early game, but its usefulness in the late game is questionable. It might not make the cut even in a dedicated Fire Mage deck.

Score: 1

Fire Sale

This is a very strong and flexible AOE in a class that was desperate for this effect to perform better against aggressive decks. The tradeable keyword means it’s not even a liability in slower matchups, where you can cycle it to find more useful cards. In a class that has Incanter’s Flow, we can’t see how this card doesn’t make a huge impact in multiple matchups. An absolute staple in multiple theoretical archetypes and a massive boost for Spell Mage in particular.

Score: 4

First Flame

This is one of the strongest removal options in the set. Basically, a Twin Slice for Mage. Yes, it cannot go face but its board control implications in the early game are massive for the class. This is without taking into consideration its utility at activating Fire synergies later in the game. A hard carrier that will quietly improve Mage’s standing across the board.

Score: 4

Celestial Ink Set

This weapon has a fatal flaw in that it can discount spells that are cheaper than 5 mana, while still requiring you to run cheap spells to get a discount quickly enough for it to matter. This makes it very awkward to build around and probably not worth the hassle. Might be the weakest Mage card of this set due to its inconsistency, even though it could have its moments.

Score: 1

Sanctum Chandler

A Gadgetzan Auctioneer for Fire spells? With Hot Streak, First Flame, and Ignite available, this could work especially when paired with Incanter’s Flow. Chandler has the potential to enable a Miracle late-game style where the Mage powers through its deck to accelerate the growth of Ignite’s damage potential or even enable an Antonidas or Grand Finale finisher. With multiple promising uses, we think one of them could work this expansion.

Score: 3

Ignite

In the words of Day9, we can now cast a larger and larger Fireball. This provides us with cheaper inevitability in late-game matchups that is likely to be superior to the clunky Mask of C’Thun. Even in the early game, this isn’t terrible (far better than the dead Mask), though there’s a chance some decks will only run one copy of it unless the consistency of fire synergies becomes exceedingly important. Can’t see Mage passing this up in either case, this is a win condition by itself.

Score: 4

Clumsy Courier

Unconditional Dragoncaster for 7. The restriction is meaningless since it’s directed to cheat out the spell you likely want to cheat out. This kind of effect has proven to be powerful before, though some will question the spells this would cheat out. Grand Finale is the tasty choice, especially with Hot Streak and Sanctum Chandler now available. We’re not sure it’s going to work but we’re certainly interested and think it has enough potential to receive some serious attention.

Score: 2

Sorcerer’s Gambit

While the pit stops along the way can help you complete the quest, it is still quite a difficult undertaking with one less card in the opening hand and the required diversification of your spell pool. The restriction is harder than it looks, especially when you investigate the current Frost spell pool. This is a package of cards you really don’t want to add to a constructed deck, especially when it’s so desperate for some good standalone cards to make up for its weaknesses. The reward is quite powerful and is likely to end the game within a couple of turns considering Mage’s burn potential, but the class really doesn’t need this quest. It has acquired or honed plenty of faster win conditions that are easier to set up, less restrictive, and just as effective when it comes to inevitability. We suspect that Sorcerer’s Gambit will just be obsolete on arrival.

Score: 1

Grand Magus Antonidas

This is quite the win condition. An Antonidas on an empty board deals 18 damage to the opponent, and with Mage’s ability to clear the board, it can certainly set up for at least 12 burst damage quite often. Antonidas can alternatively offer a pseudo-board clear. The set-up is the hard part, but with the promising package of Fire spells as well as Chandler, this may not be as hard as it looks. Not a surefire winner, but something worth trying to build around. It gives Mage an insane amount of reach that’s very difficult to outlast. Potentially 4-mana Leeroy Jenkins and two Shadowsteps in one card.

Score: 2

Final Thoughts

United in Stormwind Set Rank: 3^rd

Overall Power Ranking: 4^th

Mage got a lot of promising stuff, that both enhance its current strongest strategy and promotes other strategies that could potentially emerge. The most striking thing about this set is how it addresses every single weakness in Spell Mage’s current kit.

Weak defensively in the early game? First Flame is an incredible tool to pick off the opponent’s pressure. Fire Sale is the AOE effect that the deck was starving for. Ignite gives Mages more inevitability and increases its damage potential by such a dramatic amount that it may not need to continue utilizing Mask of C’Thun, a card that does have a lot of counterplay.

So, Spell Mage is going to be leaner and meaner. We don’t think it’s going to run a single card that costs more than 5 mana. Hilariously, that 5 mana card used to cost 4 as well. So, our entire deck is cheap, yet our damage potential is so high that it’s very likely to demolish all sorts of slow strategies that allow it time to get Ignites off.

Furthermore, Mage got new opportunities to build decks with minions. The Fire spell package looks interesting. Chandler could be an insanely effective card thanks to Incanter’s Flow and Hot Streak. Hot Streak could be an enabler to things we’ve forgotten about. Antonidas requires setup but can deal so much damage to the point where we’re wondering why we are even considering running a quest to burst our opponents down. We probably don’t want to do that. Here’s a quest for you: play fire spells over three consecutive turns. Reward: win the game.

So, Mage looks to have quite a few options, though they do come down to a single card that allows it to happen: Incanter’s Flow. Nerfed within a week? Nerfed within a month? If it stays 2-mana at the end of United in Stormwind, we’ll be more than surprised.